This installment of the Star Log.EM-series clocks in at 7 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 2 pages of SRD, leaving us with 3 pages of content – it should be noted that a part of the weapon table is on the first SRD-page, so don’t overlook that part.

After a brief introduction that also contains a bit of fluffy material, we are introduced to the new powered weaponry types within: All but one of the weapons within come in 4 different classes, we have cryobows, composite bows that get a jet of supercooled gas for a C & P combo-base. The weapon is categorized as a longarm, and its usage-values, item-levels, etc. check out. Critical effect-wise these bows stagger targets. The second ranged weapon herein is the only one that “only” has three different classes – the incapacitator bolas are a special weapon,come in versions for level 3, 9 and 14, and their damage value may not be as high as you’d expect. They are categorized as shock, but only inflict bludgeoning damage (slightly odd there…but a close glance shows why: they do have the stun property!), but they can trip targets. Yes, proper Starfinder rules employed.

As far as one-handed advanced melee weapons are concerned, we get harmonic scimitars in 4 iterations, blending slashing and sonic damage, with appropriate damage values and deafen as the critical effect. They get the mobile property…which is one of the 4 new weapon special properties within: These tap into your kinetic energy: Whenever you move at least half your speed, you treated rolled 1s on weapon damage as 2s. The property does note how it interacts with vehicles, but, as a nitpick, it’d have been nice to note explicitly that it’ll apply to only the attack after the movement for onslaught etc. interaction, but that is me being nitpicky.

Uncategorized, with piercing damage as the damage inflicted, the ion-jet tridents feature the new pin down special weapon quality, which allows you to entangle targets, with Acrobatics and Strength as means to escape – but unlike the entangle property, they pin a target to a surface – and come with biometric scanners that prevent others from powering them off. Critical effect is knockdown, fyi. Cool!

On the two-handed weaponry side, we have magnetar hammers, which are plasma weapons (E & F) with the wound critical effect. These are stance weapons that have two stances: In defensive stance, they get block, and in offensive mode, weapons with this property can have a variety of different properties – in this example, reach. Changing stances is a swift action. Love this one! The final weapon class within would be electron choppers, classified as shock weapons, and as such, dealing E & S damage. This one has a new weapon property named sunder that adds +2 to sunder maneuvers. The weapon class also uses the new critical effect shatter, which applies weapon critical damage to an object held or obviously worn by the target.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are very good on a formal and rules-language level. Layout adheres to the series’ two-column full-color standard, and the pdf has a nice new artwork. The pdf has no bookmarks, but needs none at this length.

David N. Ross’ new weapons are a thoroughly well-crafted arsenal that left me with only ridiculous nitpickery; the weaponry within is cool, the values check out, and the properties add some neat customization options to the arsenal of GMs and players alike. An easy 5 star-rating for this pdf.